SGI To Build New NASA Supercomputer

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) has chosenSGI (Silicon Graphics Inc.) to build a new supercomputer based on Linux, and powered by 10,240 Intel Itanium 2 processors. This new beast will focus its attention on the areas of space exploration, global warming, and aerospace engineering. The supercomputer will increase NASA's computing ability by a factor of 10 (estimate), and will come with a price tag of about $45 million. Needless to say, it will be one of the largest supercomputers in the world.

NASA has picked Computer maker Silicon Graphics Inc. and chipmaker Intel to develop a major supercomputer based on Linux to simulate space exploration and conduct other research, SGI announced Tuesday.

SGI said the National Aeronautics and Space Administration plans to integrate 20 512-processor SGI Altix systems using Intel's Itanium 2 processors. With an eventual 10,240 processors, the Space Exploration Simulator will be among the world's largest supercomputers based on the Linux operating system, the company said.